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Asrock Fatal1ty Z77 Professional-M Z77 Motherboard

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Posted by on Monday, June 4, 2012 - 7:03am

If you are a gamer,but lack space for your next gaming build and infatuated with the colors black and red then I think we have your very next motherboard on hand. It is the new Fatal1ty Z77 Professional-M from Asrock. A gaming motherboard marketed by a gamer for gamers. The board has the making to being a big hit with the masses as it offers a great many features for less than of the ASUS Gene series. When a mainboard like this comes along it may be a hit with the gamers but it has to overclock well to be a hit with the enthusiast crowd. Does it do that? We will in fact find out for you.

If you are a gamer,but lack space for your next gaming build and infatuated with the colors black and red then I think we have your very next motherboard on hand. It is the new Fatal1ty Z77 Professional-M from Asrock. A gaming motherboard marketed by a gamer for gamers. The board has the making to being a big hit with the masses as it offers a great many features for less than of the ASUS Gene series. When a mainboard like this comes along it may be a hit with the gamers but it has to overclock well to be a hit with the enthusiast crowd. Does it do that? We will in fact find out for you.

This smaller form factor motherboard from Asrock as all the liking to be a great motherboard just like the Gene series from ASUS. They both share the same color pattern but I can guarantee there is no money see monkey do here. You have to realize that black and red has been the color theme of Fatal1ty the Gamer for as long as he has been around branding products.

The overall looks follow that of the Asrock Fatal1ty line up what consist of the X79, Z68, P67 and several Z77 board. And this motherboard being a Z77 in flavor has all the wonderful features that Intel added to the chipset. It all begins with the HD graphics as the board has all the outputs but it’s up to the CPU to provide the actually graphic solution. But a lot the reason to get this board is overclocking and the several added fates that Asrock added.

The Professional-M was just one of several motherboards Asrock launched under the Intel Z77. The Z77 supports all of the current socket processors including Sandy Bridge as well as Ivy Bridge. But only with the Ivy Bridge CPU will you get the PCIe 3.0 as well as a couple of other features. The board using an 8+3 power phase arrangement to deliver smooth power to the CPU and its various voltage aspects.

The Professional-M does support multiple GPU configurations with NVidia and Crossfire cards. The PCIe slots which the cards are used at rated at x16 for the first slot, and when dual cards are used the first two red slots are at x8/x8. This is typical of the Z77 unless an additional bridge is being used to up the PCIe lanes. And there is no such bridge on this board. The slot is also full length but is only rated at x4. There is one lone x1 slot in between the first two longer slots.

The Ivy Bridge has been proven to have a much better integrated memory controller than the Sandy Bridge models. We can be seen with the glowing number of high frequency memory kits being offered. We recently tested some 2400 MHz modules that topped off at 2520 MHz that would not have been possible with the older processor unless you were lucky enough to get one with an outstanding IMC. Intel did implement the Ivy Bridge’s IMC with 1600 MHz native DDR3 support while the SB was only 1333 MHz. Guess that does have a little to do with it. According to Asrock the board supports DDR3 up to 2800 MHz.

The Z77 supports a total of six SATA port four being SATA II and two SATA III. But on this Asrock motherboard there are two additional SATA III ports but they are controlled by an ASMedia AMS1061 chip. The Intel ports do support RAID while the other two do not.

The Professional-M using two sets of passive heat sink to cooler the Intel PCH. They are not as nice looking as those on the X79 Extreme9 we reviewed here. But they do get the job done and that is what matters. Asrock also using a metallic-like buttons for the onboard power and reset.

One of the most interesting ports on the rear of the motherboard is the Fatal1ty Mouse Port. This port allows gamers to adjust the polling rate of their mouse. This is done in conjunction with the F-Stream application. The port does have some limitations like USB 2.0 mice can’t be used nor can USB ports.

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Conclusion

First, we have to say that Asrock Fatal1ty Professional-M is one good looking motherboard. The combination of black and red is now considered a classic. It is a choice of many that want their build to be color coordinated. Matched with an all-black case or even a white, some Corsair red Vengeance, Phanteks red TC14PE air cooler as well as some other matched components you can have one great looking rig.

Granted looks aren’t everything just part of it. The Asrock does perform well matching the Gigabyte UD3H in just about every category. And overclocking the board results were the same as the Gigabyte offering as well. Overclocking results are not totally relied on the motherboard anymore mostly the processor nowadays. So, if we can’t hit 4.8 GHz on a system using this same processor we would have to say the board just doesn’t cut it in the overclocking area.

Asrock does allow the motherboard to take advantage of all the features that was added into the Z68 and Z77 chipsets. Some may not realize that these options can be left out if the manufacturer so wanted. Basically, we can’t take them for granted. Asrock does packed the board and its software package with a ton of added features. Dehumidifier, OMG and Internet Flash to name a few.

I have to give props to this motherboard as it was able to boot with ram rated at 2400 MHz with no problem. This was not the case with the Extreme6 we tested a few weeks ago.

The Asrock Fatal1ty Professional-M is not the cheapest mATX Z77 motherboard out there. At $170 at Newegg it is cheaper than the ASUS Maximus V Gene and Gigabyte G1.Sniper M3 but more expensive than the ASUS P8Z77-M which also gets good reviews.